4.06.2013

4.5.13 Pawtucket @ Scranton Wilkes-Barre - alone with my friends

Pawtucket SMASH! Game two's another win, 9-4. I'm cringing for the RailRiders, who probably wanted to come out of the gate winning.

Starter for Pawtucket was Allen Webster, who pitched five scoreless innings. It was perfect, he hit the 85 pitch mark and then dropped the mike. The win went to reliever Oscar Villareal, though, who also blew the save. One of those triple-A things.

Dellin Betances pitched for SWB, four innings and two runs. Both runs came in the first inning, when Brad Snyder hit a two-run single. The Red Sox scored a third run in the fifth inning off reliever Ryan Pope. Outfielder Jeremy Hazelbaker led off with a triple and was then summarily swatted in by a sac fly by Justin Henry.

But the RailRiders scored a trio of runs in the seventh off Villareal to tie the game. And for a moment, they were so happy. That is, until the top of the eighth with reliever Josh Romanski giving up five runs to Pawtucket. Designated hitter Mark Hamilton hit a three-run homer. Other things happened, but they obviously make less of an impression.

Scranton collected another run in the bottom of the eighth with Chris Carpenter on the mound, and Pawtucket responded with yet another run in the top of the ninth. Bryce Brentz hit like his third double, and there may have been another run but Ryan Lavarnway was thrown out at home. Because he can't run too good? Not necessarily. This game was over three hours long and again, probably coldish and I'm sure no one wanted to prolong things.

Carpenter wrapped the whole thing up with a scoreless ninth.

two things:
1. The first six batters in the lineup got two hits each. Jonathan Diaz got zero hits and struck out four times. Both Hamilton and Snyder logged three RBI.

2. "More positives for the 25-year-old Betances is that when the PawSox
loaded the bases in the first inning, he minimized the damage instead of
letting it snowball, something that happened regularly last year. And
two of the three hits he gave up in the first weren't hit hard and one
that was hard was a shot to the mound that ricocheted off Betances'
glove." - Dave Rosengrant, here.

3. More stuff about traffic and parking issues at the ballpark in Moosic. "Team officials said their advice to fans is to leave early, expect delays and try to be patient." At least they're kind of admitting there's a problem.

4. "How come every two word name these days has to be scrunched together into one word with a capital letter in the middle?" - Chris Wise from Watching Durham Bulls Baseballfeels my pain!

5. McGair writes about Allen Webster, could be in Pennsylvania: "Webster attacked the RailRiders with mainly fastballs and sliders with a
few changeups sprinkled in. Though throwing curveballs is part of his
repertoire, Webster said he felt comfortable enough to shelve the pitch
for at least one evening.
'The slider was working and we stuck with it,' said Webster."

Tonight! Phil Hughes was supposed to pitch, but he went to New York. Probably to see The Nance. So TBA on the RailRiders and Chris Hernandez for Pawtucket. Please leave early, because I heard traffic is a real bitch.